The Last Frost

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and if you're one of the brave souls to have deep fried your turkey this year, you should check this out. In Plano, TX a suburb of Dallas, the used fryer oil is collected and donated to a company called Biodiesel Industries and you guessed it, made into environmentally friendly fuel. 

If you live in Plano and still have that oil laying around, give the Environmental Waste Service's a call at 972-769-4150 for a free pickup.

Leftover turkey fat fuels biodiesel cars - [Scotsman.com]

Portland, Oregon, a city known for it's progressive environmental policies, is taking their whole bus fleet to greener fuel. TriMet is the state's largest consumer of diesel fuel and it's now switching over to a 5% blend of biodiesel. It's not perfect, but it will make them the state's largest consumer of biodiesel, over 300,000 gallons annually. They just need to switch it over to a higher percentage, and then I'll be really happy.

I'm still really happy though, where else in the country can you take a city bus for free to a trailhead and go hiking for hours and hours without seeing another person… I love Portland, Oregon. Oh and now that bus will be 5% cleaner.

Portland's bus system turns to biodiesel » [HeraldNet]

An interesting report commissioned by London Mayor Ken Livingstone shows that new waste treatment technologies could be utilized to produce enough hydrogen gas to power London's entire bus fleet. Household trash would be heated and through processes of gasification and anaerobic digestion could create gases suitable for conversion to hydrogen.

The report estimates that the technology could produce up to 141 tons of hydrogen gas every day by the year 2020. It will also reduce waste buildup in landfills, and prevent the release of methane into the atmosphere from typical waste decomposition. 

Houshold waste "could power London buses" » [LetsRecycle.com]

The documentary, Who Killed The Electric Car is available in it's entirety on Google Video. You might want to check it out while you can.

Who Killed The Electric Car? » [Google Video]

So California has filed a suit against six major automobile manufacturers for creating a public nuisance with their product. They stipulate that cars create greenhouse gases (they do), they lead to the warming of the globe (they play a part), and the manufacturers don't give a shit (they don't). So it's seems like the lawsuit is based in reality to me. Besides, the US is a litigious society and sometimes it's the only way to get things done in our country. Otherwise people get too complacent with their paychecks and just want to chill out and watch Sunday Night Football.

So I whole heartily agree with this suit because if they win, it will force automakers to get off their fat lazy asses and start developing a product that isn't such a pain in the globe. Fuel efficient, eco-friendly, and affordable transportation; is it really too much to ask? It's been a hundred years since anyone's done anything significant with 4 wheeled transportation… the vehicles just got faster, more rounded, and more plentiful. 

So anyway, I'm taking a shot at a fellow blogger so please forgive me, but dude this guy is drunk from the cool-aid and needs to be edumacated. His arguments followed by my response:

1) There is no smoking gun evidence that points to humans as the cause of global warming.

Well dude… you can hide behind this argument and you'll probably be successful because it's a very convenient and subtle red-herring. The argument is good because it admits that the globe is warming. It's a crappy argument because there is a shit-load of evidence supporting human-induced global warming, but what about the natural warming and cooling cycles of the earth… yeah… there's that too. So global warming is induced by human activities as well as natural cycles. Who ever said that these or any other cause of warming act independent of each other? You're busy distracting people with this silly argument, the only goal of which is to place blame on one or the other while a serious problem gets worse. I bet when you fart you point to the guy next to you and blame it on them too.

2) Why is it just the auto-industry that gets blamed? Why not the consumers who buy them? Isn't that like blaming gun companies for crimes committed by gun owners?

(more…)

Mazda has recently unveiled a duel-fuel RX-8 that runs off Hydrogen as well as regular gas. Here's what the program manager from Mazda had to say:

“A hydrogen rotary engine only emits water. It is not as efficient as a fuel cell, but structurally it is closer to the petrol engine, hence its manufacturing cost is lower and it has fewer durability issues”

Mazda shows off hydrogen powered RX-8 » [Mazda News]

A scientist has managed to use enzymes rather than expensive platinum as a catalyst for converting H2 gas into electricity, the only byproduct being water. Still in it's infancy, but if this technology develops it could mean much cheaper fuel cells in the future, removing a huge barrier in the path of a true hydrogen economy.

Enzymes may hold answer to harnessing hydrogen power » [ABC News]

A company called Green Power Inc. has developed the technology to make fuel from trash. The method works best with fresh trash, but also works with the garbage in existing landfills.

The organic materials in the trash are what is mined to make the biodiesel, while inorganic metals and plastics are recycled.  

BioDiesel from Landfill Waste NOT Soybeans » [mmdnewswire.com]

Gov. George Pataki has signed a bill that prohibits gasoline distributers from requiring 'exclusivity' contracts with their customers. Until now, gas station owners have been bound by contracts requiring them to buy their gas only from one distributer. If a gas station wanted to offer alternative fuels but their distributer didn't sell them they would be out of luck. Now gas stations across New York State will have a choice to offer fuel from whatever distributer they like. 

The idea is that this will promote gas stations to offer more fueling options at the pump such as E85, Biodiesel, Hydrogen, and/or natural gas.

"To have the distribution, we have to have gas stations that want to sell it" [George Pataki, Democrat & Chronicle]

Renewable-fuels bill is signed » [Democrat & Chronicle]

The folks at Treehugger have some info on what it takes to drive that diesel car of yours on veggy oil. A good read if you're considering the purchase of a new diesel for this purpose.

Converting Diesel Engines to Run on Vegetable Oil » [Treehugger.com]